21 January 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ban floodlighting of buildings to reduce energy use, carbon dioxide emissions and light pollution."
Details of Petition:
"Floodlighting of buildings is done purely for our own vanity. It is a significant waste of energy. The Energy Saving Trust is asking us to cut down on our energy use by 20%, yet private companies and government still waste significant amounts of energy on floodlighting buildings. Why should our taxes pay to floodlight government buildings? The Government must ban the floodlighting of buildings. Even before legislation is introduced, the government could set a lead in this to encourange private owners by switching off the floodlighting of government buildings".
Read the Government’s response
The Government is committed to improving energy efficiency and reducing energy use. Effects of reducing lighting levels or turning lights off vary from case to case. The Government recognises that any financial or environmental savings from reduced energy use need to be balanced against potential adverse effects such as accidents or crime and does not have a policy to ban the use of floodlights.
Most floodlighting of buildings in the UK is provided by High Intensity Discharge (HID) lighting. Good practice is to use either high pressure sodium lamps, or, if a whiter light is needed, metal halide. These technologies provide light at high efficacy, using less than a third of the electricity of tungsten halogen lamps to provide the same quantity of light. Tungsten halogen lighting is commonly used for domestic security lighting
Defra does not use vanity or decorative floodlighting on it’s buildings. Many Defra buildings have a requirement for security lighting and use this where appropriate to light vulnerable areas. Defra is aware of the energy consumption implications of floodlighting and has a rolling programme to replace all it’s lighting with low energy alternatives.